Convergence and nonconvergence in the quality of adolescent relationships and its association with adolescent adjustment and young-adult relationship quality

Abstract

With the aim of identifying and examining both convergence (matched relationship quality across one’s set of relationships) and nonconvergence (mixed relationship quality across one’s set of relationships), the present study used a pattern-centered approach to examine the different ways adolescent relationships pattern together among a large, national sample of U.S. adolescents (aged 13–19). The study also examined how adolescent adjustment and young-adult relationship quality varied across the different relationship patterns or constellations. The current study used latent class analysis and data from Add Health ( n = 4,233), a national U.S. longitudinal study that spans adolescence and young adulthood, to uncover heterogeneity in adolescent relations with parents, friends, romantic partners, peers, and teachers. As predicted, patterns of both convergence and nonconvergence were found, though patterns of nonconvergence were more common than expected. Some patterns of nonconvergence appear more stable (i.e., similar pattern found during both adolescence and young adulthood) than others. Also, no “high” converging pattern was found, indicating that few adolescents have “first-rate” relations in every relational domain.